Victorian police have won access to about 290 documents held by law firm Slater & Gordon that relate to an alleged slush fund run by former AWU official Bruce Wilson in 1992.
A former CFMEU construction and general division organiser has told the Heydon Royal Commission this afternoon that one of the inquiry's witnesses pulled a gun on him when he entered a construction site to complain about safety standards.
Employment Minister Eric Abetz says that no formal decision has been made to create an appeal jurisdiction for the Fair Work Commission, despite Prime Minister Tony Abbott flagging his personal support for the plan.
The Federal Court has fined the HSU and three former Victorian officials a total of nearly $68,000 for financial governance irregularities, and, in a first under registered organisations legislation, ordered one of them to repay the union more than $26,000.
Former Victorian Solicitor-General John Cain will give evidence tomorrow and former prime minister Julia Gillard on Wednesday as the Heydon Royal Commission resumes its investigation of the alleged slush fund linked to the AWU in the early 1990s.
ACTU computer records suggest a single person sat the online right of entry permit tests for six HSU Victorian No 1 branch officials according to counsel assisting the Heydon Royal Commission, but the branch's secretary Diana Asmar has flatly denied she gave instructions for such a practice to occur.
NSW ALP secretary Sam Dastyari tipped off some officials in the HSU that the Federal Labor government planned to appoint an administrator to the union's East branch in early 2012, the Heydon Royal Commission has heard.
The Heydon Royal Commission has heard that a campaign fund associated with the TWU's national office and NSW branch contributed up to $200,000 to a group who ousted the leadership of the Queensland branch in 2010, and a further $120,000 to HSU and Flight Attendants Association election candidates two years later.
TWU Vic/Tas branch secretary Wayne Mader has told the Heydon Royal Commission today that officials from his branch made donations to candidates in HSU and ETU elections out of their own re-election fund.
In what the ACTU has dubbed a political witch hunt, the federal Attorney-General's department is questioning government agencies over their dealings with unions over the last ten years.
